This post comes with a peek behind the curtain of someone who makes a living designing and facilitating diversity and inclusion training that is rooted in understanding and interrupting intersectional gender bias at work.
Over the past few months, I’ve been asking myself this question:
Does anyone care about bias?
The question is followed first by a jaded, gut reaction. Then by more questions and hopeful hypotheses.
Often the times we make a true, lasting behavioral change in our lives are the times that it hurts more NOT to change than it hurts to change. And it seems that for many people (not excluding me—this is not a soapbox moment) their other pains are bigger, more immediate, more impactful. They have deadlines to meet, so they can’t attend that training. They don’t feel confident in their ability to interrupt bias, so they stay quiet. They see the microaggression as not being “that bad” so they brush past it.
But where does that leave the people who are on the receiving end of the microaggressions? The bias? The people whose pain is their inability to get ahead in their careers? The people who don’t get to choose to ignore bias because they are experiencing it daily?
We’re so privileged we get to prioritize our pain over someone else’s. We get to make it someone else’s problem. Something for an HR professional to deal with. Make it their pain to try to shift the organization of people who… don’t want to shift.
And those HR pros? The DEI experts? They have those good intentions too. But they are also making sure your paycheck goes through and that the company is following every law. They’re hiring and firing and cleaning up your messes.
I believe our work at Gild Collective is important. I know our work can make a difference. I know people are capable of change. I know people want to care—the intention is there. But do they actually care? How do we make a difference when we can’t make the people with the privilege (again, myself included) take action? These questions were leading me to the three components of burnout: Emotional exhaustion. Depersonalization. Lack of Accomplishment.
Before my burnout fully took over, I needed to answer my question—does anyone care about bias? Am I getting it wrong? Is everyone out there learning, doing the work, making the shifts, making a difference?
In talking to several people across industries, roles, and interest in this work, I identified four themes on what is holding organizations back from meaningful, inclusive change. Of course, all four of these are deeply intertwined and have cause and effect on one another, but perhaps one stands out more to you than others when it comes to your organization.
Four Things Holding Organizations Back from Inclusive Change
LEADERSHIP. Organizational leaders are not modeling and prioritizing inclusion, which also means budget and time allocation for the work isn’t being prioritized. If the decision makers aren’t convinced, there’s no opportunity for progress. Even when leadership signals good intention (whether for optics or genuine belief), a lack of accountability means the work is not carried forward. Without true buy-in and consistent modeling, all of the remaining points are cemented as the organization's fate.
RESISTANCE. Talking about privilege, power, identity, diversity, equity and inclusion makes people uncomfortable! We get it. I had one person share, “the foundation of this work pushes on people’s fight or flight response.” Another emphasized the negative impact of politicized backlash, even in areas where politics have no place. There’s so much comfort in the status quo that sometimes progress can only be made when people are already uncomfortable. The pandemic is a great example of a wake up call for people—changes were able to be made because everything was changing, there was no comfort to rely on. But as things return to “normal,” it is harder to disrupt the way we’ve always done things. As with all transitions, there is grief in saying goodbye to the ways of the past, but sometimes that grief is simply a growing pain on the path to something better.
ACTION IS REACTIVE, MOTIVATION IS FINITE. This applies to both the people tasked with leading inclusion efforts, and the people contributing to the culture. There is a desire to do more than check the box, there’s desire to have substantive impact, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease and most HR/DEI pros are spinning 50 wheels at a time. So, it is only when the problem becomes so blatant that it becomes the priority. When there’s appropriate attention paid to police brutality, companies are thrust into confronting racism. When there’s a harassment lawsuit filed, companies are forced to address sexism and harassment. When social campaigns demand that companies #showusyourleave or #showusyourchildcare, organizations take a second look at their supportive workplace policies.
And yes, action results. But motivation is fickle and finite. The urgency fades with the attention and everyone again goes on to the next squeaky wheel, the next fire. When your organization is no longer emphasizing inclusion as a priority, it falls to the bottom of the list. Hours are dedicated to being billable, or to specific skill development, or to the 100 other thoughts ping ponging around in your brain.ACCOUNTABILITY, KNOWLEDGE AND IMPLEMENTATION. There’s a tendency to do when there’s a need, but the reactive nature inherently means it lacks a cohesive strategy. Without measurement or accountability, efforts easily fall by the wayside. In our work, we’ve seen so many organizations with aspirations to be the best—and they truly want to be diverse and inclusive, but the reality is that they are saying a lot but not always following through. There’s a great tension between what organizations say they want and what is modeled (see #1), supported (see #2), acted upon (see #3). Even with the best of intentions, if it isn't affecting you, it’s easiest just to fall back into old patterns.
I would love—really, truly love—to hear from you on this topic.
Do you care?
Does your organization care?
How is your organization being held back?
What are the barriers to inclusion? The bumps in the road? The distractions?
Please, comment, email me—I want to keep learning so we can keep motivating change. I don’t want the jaded little devil on my shoulder to win this one. 👿